Episode Information

NOVA

Crash of Flight 447

On June 1, 2009, Flight AF447, an Air France Airbus A330 flying from Rio de Janeiro to Paris, disappeared over the Atlantic Ocean, taking with it all 228 lives on board. How could a state-of-the-art airliner with elaborate electronic safety and navigation features and a faultless safety record simply vanish without a trace? NOVA assembles a team of seasoned pilots, engineers and safety experts to examine the evidence that emerged in the weeks following this disaster. What led Flight 447’s crew to fly straight into a towering thunderstorm? Using expert testimony, messages transmitted by the doomed plane’s computer system and multi-layered CGI weather reconstructions, NOVA pieces together the events leading up to the catastrophe. With a veteran pilot at the controls of an Airbus simulator, NOVA reconstructs the final moments in the cockpit as the crisis overwhelmed Flight 447’s crew. The program provides a forensic view of crucial events seen from all angles to reveal what really happened on Flight 447.